As one of several shows to easily go over 250 episodes, The Simpsons is still going strong with more than 30 seasons. Whether you're watching or not, you have to give it props for managing to run for so long and showing no signs of stopping. Plus, it seems that The Simpsons just can’t stop predicting the future, and the executive producer has a pretty good explanation for it.
The Simpsons has been known to predict many things that happen years later, such as the Fox and Disney merger and Richard Branson going into space. While one might think it was just one giant coincidence, showrunner and EP Matt Selman told PEOPLE that with just a little bit of research and going over the logistics, a lot of it actually makes sense when you really think about it:
Well, the sourpuss answer I always give that no one likes is that if you study history and math, it would be literally impossible for us not to predict things. If you say enough things, some of them are going to overlap with reality, and then that's the math element. And then, the history element is if you make a show that is based on studying the past foolishness of humanity, you are surely going to anticipate the future foolishness of humanity as it sinks further into foolishness fair. So we don't really think about it.
It is pretty remarkable how The Simpsons keeps predicting the future, but knowing how the writers always do it, it’s starting to feel a little bit more logical. Of course, that doesn’t mean that everything the show predicted will come true, but with over 30 seasons of insane storylines, it’s not surprising that at least some of these predictions have come to life.
That being said, because The Simpsons has predicted so much, it’s led to fans creating false predictions. Like those who kept saying when Doc and Marty traveled to in Back to the Future Part II was any time but October 2015, some people have been sharing false predictions from The Simpsons, and understandably, Selman is not a fan:
It was nicer when the predictions were just predicting real horrible events, not people pretending we predicted horrible events.
For as long as The Simpsons airs, the show will very likely continue to predict the future. Unfortunately, that also means that people will probably be creating fake scenarios and predictions. Luckily, all seasons are streaming with a Disney+ subscription, so it’s not like it’s hard to go back and see if something really happened. It would just take a while to find that exact scene. I think doing so would be worth it, though!
The Simpsons is airing Season 36 the 2024 TV schedule right now, and there is no telling what predictions the show will be right about later down the line. The series is still as entertaining as ever and continues to be one of the best sitcoms of all time. Predictions are just a bonus to The Simpsons, because there is much more to look forward to, including the upcoming installment of “Treehouse of Horrors.”